Books

When Things Don’t Fall Apart (December 2017)

Endorsements

“This clear and passionate argument that ‘productive incoherence’ is transforming the global financial system challenges believers in all kinds of ‘isms’—and provides a source of optimism in otherwise dark times.”
—Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Executive Secretary, International Development Economics Associates

“How do you know a change when you see it? We like to see big bangs that lead to big changes. But life moves in increments. Recognizing this, Ilene Grabel has produced a lens for us that sees incoherence and discontinuity, not as noise, but assignal. And as evidence that when agents make changes to their institutional context locally, they effect changes that matter globally. Grabel shows us why institutional and ideational incoherence is the raw material of change.”
—Mark Blyth, Eastman Professor of Political Economy, The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University

“This book, by a leading critical thinker on the global financial system, analyzes with outstanding creativity the evolution of the system since the East Asian crisis. It shows in a very innovative way how it has become a more complex and fragmented system, but one that has enhanced the voice and policy space of emerging and developing countries. It is a must read for those who work on international finance.”
—José Antonio Ocampo, codirector of Banco de la República de Colombia; Professor, Columbia University; former United Nations Under-Secretary-General; former Finance Minister of Colombia

“Albert Hirschman’s pathbreaking insights into the processes of socio-economic change have been forgotten as mainstream social scientists have become less apt to question the status quo and dismissive of the possibilities for social transformation. Ilene Grabel makes a powerful and fresh case for the ‘Hirschmanian mindset’ as an essential lens through which we can understand evolutions in global financial governance since the East Asian crisis of 1997 and especially following the global financial crisis.”
—Ha-Joon Chang, University of Cambridge; author of 23 Things They Don’t Tell You about Capitalism

When Things Don’t Fall Apart was shortlisted in June 2018 for the book prize of the British International Studies Association International Political Economy Group.

Reclaiming Development

Front cover of original edition

Front cover of re-issue

Reclaiming Development: An Alternative Economic Policy Manual, London: Zed Books (US distributor: Palgrave Macmillan, NY), 2014 (2004). Co-authored with Ha-Joon Chang. Book has been co-published by Fernwood Publishing (Canada), Books for Change (India), World Book Publishing (Beirut), SIRD (Malaysia), Third World Network (Malaysia), David Philip (South Africa). First printing, 2004; second printing, March 2005. Translated into Turkish (Imge Publishing House), Korean (Bookei Publishing House), Spanish (CLACSO), Portuguese (SURURU), Tamil (New Horizon Media Ltd.), Malayalam (New Horizon Media Ltd.), and Bahasa/Indonesia. Reissued in 2014 with Foreword by Professor Robert Wade and new Preface. Left picture is the front cover of the original edition (2004) and the right is the front cover of the 2014 re-issue.

The 2014 re-issue version of the book was selected by London School of Economics students for their ‘book of the month’ club.